How can you believe it's both "no better than placebo" but also that it's "going to have his brain chemistry altered and essentially be addicted to a drug". SSRIs are not considered addictive, though people can develop a dependence if it provides them significant improvement.

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jasonfarnon 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The whole point of the linked article is that the drug is no better at placebo at treating depression but also carries a host of known side effects, besides unknowns when it comes to long term use. They're not saying it's inert.

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jacobgkau 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

A drug can have real effects while being no better than a placebo for doing something specific (what they're supposed to do).

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pyth0 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Okay, so what makes you believe that about prozac (or SSRIs) then?

	▲	ckw 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Here’s a paper from last year: The nature and impact of antidepressant withdrawal symptoms and proposal of the Discriminatory Antidepressant Withdrawal Symptoms Scale (DAWSS) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadr.2024.100765 ‘Highlights • Antidepressant withdrawal can be severe and protracted. • It produces characteristic physical and emotional symptoms. • All symptoms were more severe after stopping than before starting antidepressants. • We identified the 15 most discriminatory withdrawal symptoms in our sample. • Withdrawal did not differ between people with physical or mental health diagnoses.’